Stephen Shelley
Artistic Director & Executive Producer
Stephen began his career in the arts as the Assistant Company Manager and Personal Assistant to Merce Cunningham. For four years, Stephen traveled the world, and experienced and produced performance on a very large scale. He founded Théatre de la Fête in 1995, and produced/directed a series of works that included “Noah’s Flood”, “Tale of the Magic Glove” and most recently, Seneca’s “Medea”.
Upon leaving MCDC, Stephen directed a small work for the NY International Fringe Festival, “Ashokh”. In this work, he choreographed a 2-person dance to be performed around a woman, dressed in Kabuki clothing, playing Medea. From 2001-2003 Stephen had the pleasure of working with Matt Mitler and Theater Group Dzieci as an actor. He appeared in multiple improvisations around town, on the streets, in hospitals, at festivals and for a variety of specific populations. He also helped premiere Dzieci’s “The Devils of Loudun” at Ellen Stewart’s La MaMa ETC Annex Space in January of 2003. Since then, Stephen has appeared in a variety of Dzieci’s work including 2009′s presentation of the group’s wondrous “Fool’s Mass”.
Stephen has produced theater and events at BAM, The Paris Opera (Palais Garnier), Teatro La Fenice (Venice), Le Corum (Montpellier France), City Center (New York City), La MaMa ETC & Carnegie Hall (amongst others).
Kelcie Beene
Associate Producer – Production
Kelcie Beene is an Off-Broadway and Special Events producer. She is also a Producing Member of The 24 Hour Company with whom she has produced The 24 Hour Plays or Musicals in Los Angeles, New York, London, and Dublin. Credits with the acclaimed downtown theater company The Amoralists include: The Bad and the Better (The Peter Jay Sharp); HotelMotel (The Gershwin Hotel); Bring Us the Head of Your Daughter (PS 122); Ghosts in the Cottonwoods (Theatre 80 St. Mark’s); and The Pied Pipers of the Lower East Side/Happy in the Poorhouse REDUX (P.S.122). Other producing credits include: These Girls (GLAMOUR/Joe’s Pub); Herman Kline’s Midlife Crisis (At Play, Theatre Row); The Arden Project (Old Vic New Voices, 3LD); You’re Invited (Showcase at the Old Vic Theatre, London); Al’s Business Cards (At Play, Theatre Row). Kelcie also spent several seasons as an Associate/Segment Producer for the hit MTV reality series 16 & Pregnant.
Rasu Jilani
Associate Producer – Community Relations
Arts and Culture Consultant, creative Event Producer, Arts and Community Engagement Specialist, and Social Entrepreneur, Jilani stands out for his ability to wear many hats in an effort to meet and exceed professional endeavors. As co-founder of the art and socially responsible brand, Coup d’etat Brooklyn, Jilani has created a platform for creative expression that transcends cultural boundaries. In 2008, Rasu Jilani introduced the Coup d’etat Art Collective, a Brooklyn-based collaboration of highly respected artists, to produce various art-related events throughout New York City. The Coup d’etat Art Collective provides a unique platform for creative synergy while filling an undeniable void in the arts and culture community.
Jilani served a two-year tenure as an Arts, Culture and Sustainability Consultant at the Pratt Center for Community Development. Managing art and cultural programs designed to connect New York City neighborhoods with Pratt Center’s community and environmental sustainability projects.
Leveraging an ever-expanding portfolio of qualifications covering art and cultural development, social media and community engagement core competencies, Jilani now serves as the Director of Community Programming for MAPP International Production.
Michael Faba
Production Manager
Mike Faba is a New York based Lighting Designer, Production Manager, and Stage Manager for Theatre and Dance. Recent design credits include The What Dance by the Tugboat Collective, New Voices at NYU-Steinhardt, The Order by Dance Iquail! at the Harlem School of the Arts, FLICfest at Theater Irondale, and Kids on Strike at the Lee Strasberg Theater and Film Institute. Mike is currently the Production Stage Manager and Lighting Supervisor for the Kate Weare Company, as well as for Radiolab Live: In The Dark, a collaboration between WNYC’s Radiolab and Pilobolus. Mike was also Lighting Supervisor for Martha Clarke’s Angel Reapers, which premiered at the Joyce last fall after a northeast tour. Mike is a graduate of the Professional Theater Arts Training Program in Lighting Design at the Seattle Repertory Theater, and holds a BA in Drama from Vassar College.
Jennifer Sandella
Festival Assistant/Coordinator
Jennifer Sandella is a Brooklyn based director and theatre artist with a foundation in classical text and performance. Jennifer has trained at The Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in London (MA-Text and Performance/Directing Pathway) and Hofstra University (BFA in Theatre Performance). She is currently the Artistic Director for Random Access Theatre, (www.randomaccesstheatre.com), a company whose goal is to reimagine the classics for a contemporary audience and foster an emerging artistic community. NYC Directing credits include: Anthem (Random Access Theatre) The Shape of Things (Estrana Theatre Company), Subway Savant, A New Musical (Dramatists Guild), Highway Blue -A New Play with Music (world premiere-Manhattan Shakespeare Project), Nesting (world premiere-Token Collective).
Emily Ludolph
Development Intern
Emily Ludolph is Brooklyn local and Hudson Valley schooled. She has assisted arts organizations including PEN America, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Metropolitan Opera and most recently, the radio program Playing on Air. Emily is a working actress and will be appearing with the Hudson Shakespeare Company this summer as all the lords who get stabbed by Cyrano. If you look quick, you can catch her in the past seasons of Girls, Gossip Girl, and Nurse Jackie. She enjoys theater where she can’t tell if she’s at a play or a party. She holds a BA in English from Vassar College.
Kate Silva
Marketing Intern
As a Brooklyn native, Kate looks forward to working with BEAT following her graduation from Lafayette College, where she will receive a BA in Art and English. Last year she studied abroad in Florence and Venice, Italy, which has cultivated her desire to pursue a career in the arts. She worked with Save Venice Inc., evaluating various restoration projects, planning events and writing sponsorship brochures. In her free time, she is an avid photographer and painter.
Gary Sapozhnikov
Web Design Intern
Gary Sapozhnikov is a South Brooklyn native with a vast background in the Performing Arts. A full-time student and a part time musician, Gary has had a prolific role in hosting events across the Polytechnic Institute of NYU, where he enrolled in 2011.
He currently holds the position of Vice President of Programming at NYU Poly’s Performing Arts Club, and had a role in Internal logistics at the recently disbanded Programming Advisory Board. In addition, he has had roles in productions such as Guys and Dolls, 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee, Armed Robbery for Dummies, and Family 2.0, while ocassionally performing cover songs at School events and open mic nights across the city.
Whether its stage work, light and sound, stage band, directing, or acting, he has done it all. Although he has web development in mind for the future, Music and Performing Arts are his biggest passions.
Aaron Copp
Production/Technical Consultant
Aaron Copp is a lighting designer working in dance, theater, and music. After graduating from Hartwick College, Aaron worked for eight years in New York, touring with such companies as Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane, ISO Dance Theater, Sankai Juku, Twyla Tharp and Merce Cunningham. He entered the Yale School of Drama in the fall of 1995, studying lighting design with Jennifer Tipton and Steven Strawbridge and set design with Ming Cho Lee and Michael Yeargan. Since graduating from Yale in 1998 he has been freelancing as a designer and consultant. Aaron was the overall Lighting Director for the 2011 Lincoln Center Festival.
Emily Maurer
Community Relations Associate
Emily Maurer is a dancer and Pilates instructor, living in Williamsburg, Brooklyn.
Emily attended the University of Southern Mississippi, where she had the opportunity to study under visiting artists including Doug Varone, Mark Haim, and Shapiro and Smith. After graduating with a B.F.A. in 2004, Emily went to the American Dance Festival in Durham, NC as a scholarship student. While there, she performed in the ICPP concert for Russian choreographer, Olga Pona. She went on to the Bates Dance Festival in Lewiston, ME, after which she moved to New York.
Emily dances for the Brooklyn based dance company, white road Dance Media. In the fall of 2011, she will be traveling with the company to Austin, TX for a two week residency at the Carver Center. She also teaches Pilates, and is completing her comprehensive certification through Balanced Body University.
Theresa Sgobba
Development Associate
A non-practicing attorney and resident of Brooklyn, Theresa works at the Vera Institute of Justice (Vera), a New York-based nonprofit organization, where she leads and manages the “Brooklyn for Brooklyn Initiative (B4B),” an effort by New York State to create a community-based and therapeutic model for the state’s youth justice system. As project manager for B4B, Theresa is working with the state to design, develop and pilot the new model here in Brooklyn, where community partners and government officials are united in their commitment to keeping Brooklyn youth close to home, and closely connected to family and community supports. In partnership with a growing coalition of community members, foundations, and organizations, Theresa is helping the Initiative expand and diversify the connections made between system-involved youth, their families, and programs in the Brooklyn community that can improve their lives and the safety of their communities.
Before joining Vera to run B4B, Theresa was a law clerk to the Honorable Judge Deborah A. Batts of the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York. Theresa holds a JD from Yale Law School and a BA from Stanford University.
Tom Desmond
Online Marketing & SEO
Tom Desmond is professional New York City Jazz Musician who also works as an online marketing/SEO expert. He created ModernMitzvah.com which became the number one bar mitzvah site on the web. He also created LocalConstructionPros.com, a national contractor directory with over 10,000 members. He is the founder and owner of iSEOiSEO.com, a web development, internet marketing and online reputation management firm.